But buried in the legislation is a proposal for “alternative options to lease expiry rules that could allow landlords to control who occupies their units and for how long,” including through adjustments to rental arrangements based on \u201cmarket conditions, personal needs or business strategies,\u201d according to the province\u2019s briefing slides Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Housing advocates say if passed, the legislation will hurt long-term renters and vulnerable tenants, like seniors and students, across Ontario.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s panicking. This is not the solution for affordable housing,” said Stacey Semple, a volunteer organizer with Acorn, a non-profit organization that advocates for various social justice issues, including affordable housing. <\/p>\n
“He is taking rights away from tenants,” she said, referring to Ford. “The landlords are getting free passes to evict long-term tenants, especially because they want to collect more rent because it\u2019s more economically viable.\u201d<\/p>\n
WATCH | What does it mean to be in a \u2018renters\u2019 market\u2019?:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761369969_864_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
What does a ‘renters’ market’ mean for landlords and tenants?<\/p>\n
There are plenty of signs these days that we are in a renters’ market. Industry watchers say 2023 was peak pricing, with an average rent for a one-bedroom hovering around $2,500 a month. Last year, that started to change, in part due to an increased housing supply, a softening job market and fewer people moving to the province. Incentives even started popping up on renters’ websites. Liv Rent\u2019s head of marketing, Matisse Yiu, explains why. ‘Security of tenure’ at risk: advocates<\/p>\n
Currently, tenants are protected by what’s called “security of tenure,” which gives them the right to remain in a rental unit as long as they follow the lease agreement and residential tenancies act.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also allows them to continue on a month-to-month rental basis after a fixed-term lease ends. Landlords are unable to evict tenants without a legally valid reason.<\/p>\n
But if the legislation passes, Semple says Toronto and other areas large populations of renters will be hit especially hard. According to 2021 census data by Statistics Canada, 48 per cent of Toronto\u2019s population are renters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | How \u2018financial landlords\u2019 have impacted the affordability crisis :![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761369969_460_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
How much are ‘financial landlords’ driving up Toronto rents?<\/p>\n
A new report is shining a light on a decades-long problem in Toronto: so-called ‘financial landlords’ and their effect on Toronto’s rental market. CBC’s Chris Glover digs into the data to find out why they are worsening the affordability crisis. <\/p>\n
She says without affordable housing options, more people could be evicted from their rent-controlled homes and may end up homeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Ford] is actually going to create more encampments \u2026 I am not necessarily surprised Ford is all about the profit and the bottom line.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the province said it is undergoing consultations on options to lease expiry rules, but that it will continue \u201cto protect tenants while supporting landlords, including mom and pops who rely on rental income to help pay their mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTenants will continue to have strong protections across the province, including from significant rent hikes, holding 2025 rent increase guideline holding below the inflation rate at 2.5 per cent,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n
Proposal ‘attacks every single’ tenant: renter<\/p>\n
When he first came across the proposal, long-term renter Leigh Beadon went on social media to share what he called a “shocking” discovery. His post on X has over 100,000 views, with several other concerned renters chiming in, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[This] directly attacks every single one of the tenants in Ontario and I think people who haven’t paid a lot of attention to the ins and outs and the details of tenant rights in the past immediately understood that this was going to directly impact them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beadon said it\u2019s “unimaginable\u201d to consider that this proposal could force him out of the apartment and community that he\u2019s called home for nearly 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761369969_544_default.jpg\")
A screenshot from the province’s housing bill brief shows the proposal for consultation to find alternatives to the lease agreement expiry that would give landlords more power. (Government of Ontario)<\/p>\n
Renters in long-term tenancies often pay far below the market price, he said, considering many live in older rent-controlled buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Without rent control, tenants will be forced to pay a lot more or move out to \u201cless desirable neighbourhoods\u201d farther from the city, said Beadon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are on fixed incomes, such as seniors or people on disability benefits, many of whom [have said] security of tenure is the only thing keeping them in their homes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s the only way that they’re able to know that they’ve got a place to sleep tomorrow night and we know that homelessness is out of control in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renters get 1-year guarantee, spa gets 99 years: critic <\/p>\n
At an unrelated news conference Friday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said landlords could gain \u201cenormous\u201d powers with the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s considerations, consultations, but there has to be fairness involved,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adil Shamji, housing critic for the Ontario Liberal Party called Ford\u2019s latest legislation \u201ca mean-spirited bill that ignores the injustices\u201d tenants face and could lead to bad-faith evictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity of tenure allows tenants in good standing to remain in their home until they wish to move on,\u201d said Shamji in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly in Doug Ford\u2019s Ontario can hard-working renters in good standing be able to count on just a one-year lease, while a foreign spa company at Ontario Place gets a guarantee for 99.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catherine McKenney, Ontario NDP\u2019s shadow housing minister, said families across Ontario could face mass evictions if rent controls are removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHousing has never been more expensive in Ontario; 800,000 people can\u2019t find work, and now Ford is making things even worse. Is the Premier\u2019s only goal making life as expensive as possible for Ontarians?\u201d McKenney said, adding the province is last in the country when it comes to building homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer is building more homes, not trampling the rights of renters. Ford has a responsibility to keep Ontarians from falling through the cracks. We need real rent control now.\u201d<\/p>\n
WATCH | Ontario tenants end years-long rent strike :![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761369970_880_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Thorncliffe Park tenants’ years-long rent strike comes to an end<\/p>\n
Thorncliffe Park tenants and their landlords have come to “an amicable agreement” after years of protests over above-guideline rent increases. CBC’s Dale Manucdoc has the details \u2014 and reaction. <\/p>\n
For Beadon, the proposed legislation shows tenants must advocate for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recent years, tenants have \u201cscored some big wins\u201d by organizing rent strikes and protests \u2013 something renters need to consider if the Ford government moves forward with its proposal, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s one of the few things that gives Ontario tenants hope right now,\u201d Beadon said. \u201cThat is where we should all be focusing our efforts together as the tenant class and let the government know that we’re not going to let them do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario’s planned new housing legislation could open the door to ending rent control and indefinite leases across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-238544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}